Hasta La Gadget!

One one side of the field was a team of former pro soccer players. On the other, a squad of visually impaired amateurs. The two sides laced ’em up, stretched out their quads and went head to head in a scrimmage, though the matchup was a lot more even than you might expect. It’s all part of something called the “Sound of Football” — the latest experiment from the Pepsi Refresh Project. The idea was to level the playing field, so to speak, by forcing both teams to play a match using only their ears, and a pretty nifty tracking system. Created by Tracab, this system was comprised of 16 cameras covering the entire pitch (including two stereovision cameras placed at mid-field), and used jersey colors to distinguish the home team from the away team, and to identify the referees. This set up, which was deployed during the last World Cup, essentially tracked the position of each player in real-time. This information was then funneled into an iPhone attached to each player’s headset, and converted into a surround-sound landscape, using an app created by a company called Society 46. Unique sounds were assigned to both the ball and the goal; turning your head in the direction of one goal would produce one sound, facing the ball would result in another. This allowed each player to get a better idea of his surroundings and of his spatial positioning, though, as many of the pros found out, it wasn’t quite as easy as it looked. The designers of this system are now looking to use their technology in other, non-sports arenas, in the hopes of helping the blind and visually impaired “see” more of the world around them. Check out a pair of videos on the match and the technology behind it, after the break.

[Thanks, Martin]

Continue reading Pepsi’s ‘Sound of Football’ project lets visually impaired players see the pitch with their ears (video)

Pepsi’s ‘Sound of Football’ project lets visually impaired players see the pitch with their ears (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Nov 2011 04:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  The Sound of Football  | Email this | Comments

Continue reading Garmin announces FR70 fitness watches to keep you on track

Garmin announces FR70 fitness watches to keep you on track originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Oct 2011 05:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

When it comes to sports gadgets, runners seem to get all the good stuff: the Nike+, the Motoactv and even the FitBit. For all the footballers, basketball players and aspiring tennis stars out there, Adidas is spreading the love with the introduction of its miCoach Speed_Cell — a $69.99 device that measures motion and performance in every direction whether you’re into tackling, serving or shooting. The gadget fits on the bottom side of compatible shoes to capture seven hours of stats including average and max speed, number of sprints, distance at high intensity levels, steps and strides. The coolest part? Your personal bests will transfer wirelessly to a smartphone, tablet, PC or Mac for post-practice critique, Sports Center style. The soccer-centric company has already released a compatible pair of cleats and has plans to put out more miCoach-friendly footwear, as well as a series of sport-specific apps allowing athletes to virtually monitor their performance. Jump, skip or dribble over to the PR after the break for the full deets.

Continue reading Adidas miCoach Speed_Cell measures your dunking prowess and serving skills

Filed under: Wearables

Adidas miCoach Speed_Cell measures your dunking prowess and serving skills originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TechCrunch  |   | Email this | Comments

So far the appcessories — yeah we said it, APPcessories — we’ve seen include some good ideas, and some less so. The Bluetooth LE 3D-Sport and Weather offerings from Mosoro fall into the former category (if they make their way into a shipping product that is). The 3D-Sport is a motion capture device you attach to sports equipment. The on-board accelerometer, gyroscope and magnetometer beam motion data to your iOS device, where it can be analyzed by Rocky-style Russian coaches to see where your throw or golf swing is going wrong. The latter is a mini weather station that reads temperature, humidity, elevation, and barometric pressure to tell you the conditions where you are right now. More usefully, it nabs your GPS location and uploads it all to Mosoro’s aptly named “Cloud” Server that presumably maps out some crazy real-time crowdsourced weather report. Both also use Bluetooth 4.0’s low energy technology so they won’t need to see a charger for a long time. Now we just need a company that likes collating personal data, perhaps with a weather service, to snap this one up… any takers?

Continue reading Mosoro Bluetooth LE iOS accessories improve your golf, if the weather’s right

Mosoro Bluetooth LE iOS accessories improve your golf, if the weather’s right originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 11:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Tough, good-looking and versatile. The new Hero2 is the James Bond of cameras

GoPro has launched a big update to its sports cam line. The HD Hero2 jumps from 5MP to 11MP, will shoot 1080p video at all angles of view (90, 127 and 170-degrees) and can now beam video via Wi-Fi to a new accessory.

Apart from being rugged and sport-friendly, the Hero line will also mount on just about anything. Reflecting this, the camera can be had in three $300 kits: Outdoor, Motorsports and Surf. These give various combinations of fixings: helmet mounts adhesive pads, bungee cords, pivot-arms, a waterproof housing and even the terrifying-sounding “floaty backdoor.”

Thus secured, the camera will shoot action video and output it through a new mini HDMI port and slurp sound through a jack for an external mic. And if the situation is too dangerous for actual people, the soon-to-be-launched BacPac will come in handy. This clips to the back of the Hero2 and not only streams live video but allows remote control via smartphone app (you’ll need to have some kind of Wi-Fi network to use it).

The GoPro Hero2 HD is available now, BacPac coming soon.

Hero2 HD product page [GoPro]

Wi-Fi BacPac product page [GoPro]

See Also:

• Headfirst Insanity: 6 Gnarly Helmetcam Videos
• Helmet-Cam Mount for Last-Gen iPod Nano
• Gopro